Jeffrey LippertOn-Scene Coordinator

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began a hazardous waste cleanup at the former Electro Plating Services facility at 945 E. 10 Mile Road in Madison Heights, Mich. EPA estimates that the $2 million cleanup will take more than four months. The site is surrounded by residential, commercial and industrial properties.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality ordered the company to cease operations and referred the site to EPA in December 2016 after inspectors discovered hundreds of corroded drums, vats and other containers of hazardous waste at the site.

Since 1967, the company has used copper, tin, bronze, cadmium, nickel, chrome, gold, silver, zinc and lead for various electroplating operations, leaving behind hazardous wastes including sodium cyanide, Trichloroethylene, or TCE, and lead.